Arguably the best UFT blogger out there is Reality Based Educator. We have all taken a step backwards because RBE stopped blogging last year. Whenever RBE comments here or emails something, I read it and take it very seriously.
In response to Friday's post showing that an Independent Budget Office analysis of the recent UFT Paid Parental Leave agreement concluded that both the city and UFT Welfare Fund will profit from the deal at our expense, RBE commented:
RBE Sunday, August 19, 2018 8:05:00 AM
UFT leadership yucks it up daily as they stick it to us time and time again, sell us out over and over, lie to us, cheat us and tell us the shit they concede to scrapes the skies.
Until leadership is starved of the goody money and/or has to compete for dues-paying members, this will continue.
I do not see either of those happening any time soon, but that will be the only way we will ever see changes to how UFT leadership operates (i.e., as an ancillary entity to the city, in cahoots with the NYCDOE, to enrich themselves via power, perks and privileges and screw members.)
These are very powerful words from a very reasonable and informed UFT member.
I sadly agree with him that the UFT is an ancillary entity to the city out for themselves for the most part. The answer, however, is not to have everyone out of a union. We need a real union now more than ever.
The problem is UFT can go on like this because we the membership allows it. Please spread the word about how we can get together and change things.
ICEUFT is scheduled to meet on August 30. Why not show up some of you? Together, we might make a difference.
Sad to see not a single response to this very strong and on target post.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing the certified letter waiting for me is clarification I'm not in the UFT. I just can't support a beast that doesn't support me.
ReplyDeleteUntil there is a revolt of the rank and file refusing to pay dues, the UFT will continue in the same old corrupt way and NOTHING WILL CHANGE. The courageous and righteous choice is to opt out of the UFT and STARVE THE BEAST.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/dm1eW1LkjY4
ReplyDeleteIs this relevant to our dilemma?
I know the “blogs” response will be “do something, but holding back dues isn’t the answer” but I strongly disagree.
ReplyDeleteI am a teacher, wanted to be a teacher Ann not a union president. I never wanted to be a cleaning lady, lawn person, deli worker, dentist, proctologist, etc. so I pay people to do all those jobs for me. When I don’t like the way things are done, I make suggestions or complain and things get fixed or I get my services elsewhere...what I don’t do is start checking my prostate on my own. The UFT is a service I am very unhappy with. I have written dozens of letters and emails complaining to the UFT. I have had to pay lawyers because the UFT is inadequate at best and probably more skewed to helping the DOE than me. I act as my own UFT rep., I would never trust a NYSUT rep. At a 3020a, and all the services I use(dental, prescriptions, medical-and even the joke of FMLA) are paid for by the city and must be provided.
The only way to show a business it needs to change is with your wallet! So I requested my dues pulled with the UFT and DOE.
All the young female newbies at my school are gloating about this "free maternity leave". When I tell them that we are all loosing money over this due to a delayed contract, they simply told me that they don't care. The sad thing is that these newbies are not looking at the bigger picture. They can't see that there is no such thing as "free" when it comes from the DOE/UFT. I am not expecting a big raise since DC37 already set a pattern. However, the UFT should at least try to get the DOE to throw us a bone by asking for 2 observations like the rest of NYS. That would not cost the city a dime and would most likely be favored by the CSA whose members are sick and tired of doing countless observations each year. Thoughts???
ReplyDeleteUFT has actively been working to get two observations. If they made progress, exspect an announcement the first week of school. I’ve heard from a top person that they have made progress. This won’t win any respect from me! It will still be guidelines for minimum. I will never forgive the UFT for receiving money from 2009 in 2020! VoteNoOntheUFTContract
ReplyDeleteTwo formal observations!
ReplyDeleteI disagree, if the UFT gets back to 2 obs that's a big enough win that I would definitely not pull dues.
ReplyDeleteEverything else, it's making me reconsider the mantra "a sh-t union is better than no union".
As others have mentioned, it's time Unity/UFT leadership at 52 B'way learns how the free market works. However with the free market there's supposed to be another, better choice. (A significant) Part of me agrees with James, that pulling dues is akin to boycotting your supermarket because it sucks, but starving to death since there's no other supermarket we can choose.
I don’t want to continue to support this bullshit fake undemocratic elitist union. I’d like to try to change it but have no idea how that can be done. I no longer feel Id be cutting my nose off to spite my face. Its more like popping a pimple located where the sun don’t shine. I’ll do my best to be there on the 30th. - Jim
ReplyDeleteThey can do two observations now. It is the law.
ReplyDelete2 OBSERVATIONS NOW!!!
ReplyDeleteFix the ATR debacle!!
ReplyDeleteMelvyn Aaronson, UFT treasurer makes 120k as a teacher still(haven’t taught for decades) and 150k from the UFT. Thomas Brown haven’t been in his school in nearly two decades, but collects 120k from their payroll and 200k as a TRS board member as the rep. From the UFT. Most of the hierarchy in the UFT collect a DOE salary and a UFT salary. Many get strip ends from the AFT and NYSUT too. They don’t need the paltry raises...so why fight for them!
ReplyDeletePimpin’ ain’t easy!
DeleteUFT has 2 short weeks to get it's act together to rally the rank and file. If we started out the year with 2 observations, the UFT would be lookin' really good in this first year of a post Janus DOE.
ReplyDeleteThe mayor is looking to increase the number, especially for veteran teachers.
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ReplyDeleteNah, need 8.25 TDA back. I just opted out.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned above: The CSA would love to have 2 observations for teachers rated "effective" or higher. The CSA is sick of doing all these observations. Just my 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteI asked everyone not to provide links to anti union sites here. Not a very outrageous request to honor on a pro union site. Please find anti union sites on your own. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteTwo observations may arrive. I sat at a charity luncheon with a person two weeks ago, their spouse is a bigwig in the UFT. They told me that the UFT has been actively negotiating this. They weren’t sure if the two observations would be formal, she did say an agreement was near, if not already done. We will see.
ReplyDeleteKeep dreaming. 2 observations might end when the ATR pool does.
DeleteI agree with some other commenters that getting observations down to two would be a positive move.
ReplyDeleteI still don't understand why we are the only district in the state to have four. This system we are under was imposed on us by John King at the behest of Governor Cuomo because the UFT and Bloomberg could not come to agreement on an evaluation system to satisfy Cuomo's APPR law.
Here we are, years later, with John King long gone from not only SED but even the USED where he ended up afterward, Bloomberg long gone from City Hall and Cuomo desperate for union support for both his 2018 re-election and 2020 presidential pipe dream, yet we still have four observations and, as of last year, Mulgrew was still hailing this system as a model for the state and Unity hacks at the DA were claiming the system was the bestest thing since Randi Weingarten's dye job.
Administrators want the system down to two as much as teachers do. Two observations is the requirement under state law. The UFT claimed throughout Farina's reign of error that they had a good working relationship with the chancellor. And yet, here we are still suffering under four mandated observations, eight if you are unlucky enough to be in a district where the superintendent is requiring "formative" observations as well as evaluative ones, and sixteen if you are in special education classes with two teachers, since each needs to be observed 8 times (four "formatives," four evaluatives.")
What a fucking disaster this system is, people are suffering greatly under it and the UFT has done nothing publicly to fight it or criticize it.
They know people hate it, perhaps they are fighting it behind the scenes as some people say they are.
If so, why were they still defending it as of last year, hailing it as a state model and voting down resolutions calling for two observations?
Again, I will come back to the original comment that spurred this post:
Until the UFT leadership are starved of funds and/or forced to fight with a competing entity for members, they will continue to aggrandize and reward themselves and let the crumbs fall off the table to us at best, actively look to harm us at worst.
UFT leadership should have had this system down to two as soon as Bloomberg was gone. That we are almost six years into de Blasio and we still have four observations is a serious indictment of UFT leadership complicity and duplicity against their own membership.
See why RBE is arguably the best blogger out there. We miss him and are glad he comments here.
ReplyDeleteI prefer getting 8.25% TDA back over all other things, although I know it wont happen. I don't think teachers understand what 1.25% difference, compounding, means over a career. It could literally be hundreds of thousands of dollars. $200K, just sitting there, after 20 years, at 7% compounding is $774K. At 8.25%, it is $976K.
ReplyDeleteI have 500k in the TDA. I put the TDA all in fixed as I also max out the 457-NYC DEFERRED COMPENSATION, so I have my risk covered. But on the TDA I am losing over $6000 a year. I went to the website and asked filled out the firm to ask the UFT to no longer take dues. $1500 a year saved doesn’t quite match what I lost, but it’s a good start.
ReplyDeleteGetting the 8.25% back would require state legislature and governor approval. It isn't happening anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteHow do you expect to make any gains if we have fewer union members? Hard to imagine that happening.
ReplyDeleteJames, its a never ending circle, the uft has proven, with 100% of members paying dues, they will do nothing and make things worse. Then, you say, well, if we stop paying, we cant make gains. So when we all keep paying, and nothing becomes better, then what? How long do we have to keep paying before we realize nothing is changing?
ReplyDeletePlease, the UFT has not won anything in decades! I’ve paid dues doe 20 years and lost, lost, lost! I’ll take my dues thank you very much!
ReplyDelete4:45, I can't say you are wrong but the record does indicate when a state has optional dues, wages and benefits go down. We have to think union. Unions uplift workers. Plenty of evidence for that.
ReplyDeleteWorkers are better off with Unions. The problem is our Union is inept and ineffective, and there is as of right now no way to replace it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I don't get the obsession, unless you're close to retirement, with the 8.25 fixed. The Diversified Equity fund blows away the fixed option.
As James mentioned getting that back is a pipe dream, I don't see what political will there would be to restore that when no one in the real world can achieve that kind of guaranteed return (including NYSUT public school teachers elsewhere in the State). Don't get me wrong I'm glad it's there but objectively, the fixed TDA rate is a relic of a bygone era. It's not sustainable in a low-interest rate environment.
Because its guaranteed and you can project exactly what it will be, and we lost the 1.25 for no reason.
ReplyDeleteNo, No, No. Randi got those two days back in August for the 1.25% lower rate on TDA. You would have school next week on Thursday and Friday if not for Randi's negotiating. We saved a billion dollars for the city and got two days off. Why on earth would the city go back when they make out wonderfully on the deal just as they usually do when the UFT comes to negotiate?
ReplyDelete